# Google's listicle demotion is targeted, not universal

Published: 2026-08-25T00:17:58.354Z · Source: Growth Memo (Kevin Indig) (https://www.growth-memo.com/p/has-google-demoted-listicles)
Source date: 2026-08-24
Flags: self-published analyst data — Kevin Indig/Growth Memo, SE Ranking dataset
Entities: google, ai-overviews

Google's share of listicles holding position 1 fell from roughly 19-20% in January 2026 to about 15-16% in August, while top-3 listicle rates dropped from roughly 36-39% to 32-33%, per a Growth Memo analysis of 5.32 million Google result rows across 60,000 queries. The decline wasn't universal: 62% of vendor-authored listicles gained estimated organic traffic over the same span, with a median gain of 38%, and Google still shows about 4.5x more listicles for queries that explicitly ask for a list than for implicit category queries, per analyst Kevin Indig.

Why it matters: A ranking dip framed online as a blanket \"listicle demotion\" turns out to be targeted and query-dependent, not universal — a reminder to check what actually moved before retooling a content strategy around a headline.

## What this answers

**Has Google demoted "best of" or listicle content in search results?**

Only partially: the share of listicles holding position 1 fell from roughly 19-20% in January 2026 to about 15-16% in August, but 62% of vendor-authored listicles gained estimated organic traffic over the same period, per a Growth Memo analysis.

**Does Google show more listicles for some searches than others?**

Yes — Google displays roughly 4.5x more listicles for queries that explicitly ask for a list than for implicit category queries, per the same analysis of 60,000 Google queries.


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